U.S. TV Soccer Ad Dollars Continue To Rise

With soccer’s World Cup just days away from starting in Brazil, a new study notes that U.S. TV advertising dollars continue to grow with the sport at a rapid rate.

Nielsen says there was a 43% increase to $378 million in 2013 versus $266 million in 2010.
 
Nielsen calculates that U.S. soccer TV pulled in $174 million in 2012, $320 million in 2011 and $266 million in 2010 — the last time the World Cup event was held.

Now, it says there are some 21 total TV networks airing soccer programming, up from 11 a year ago: 13 English-language networks and eight Spanish-language networks. This list includes CNBC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPNU, Fox, Fox Soccer, FS1, FS2, Fuel, FX, NBC, NBC Sports Network, AZA, Fox Deportes, Galavision,  Mun2, Telemundo, Univision, Univision Deportes and UniMas.

A total of 3,891 soccer events were televised in 2013 — a 33% gain over 2010 when there was 2,613.

Looking at the Major League Soccer league, its average U.S. TV audience per game per year was 174,000 in 2013 up steadily from 122,000 in 2011. Nielsen also notes that since 2009 there has been a 24% increase in the number of non-Hispanics.

advertisement

advertisement

Next story loading loading..